Interesting Case - 3D Drone Mapping

Discuss all Forensics & CSI related issues here.
Post Reply
User avatar
vislaw
V.I.P Member
V.I.P Member
Posts: 125
Joined: Thu Feb 17, 2011 1:42 pm
13
Full Name: Mark Johnson
Company Details: Visual Law Group
Company Position Title: Principal and Chief Creative Officer
Country: USA
Linkedin Profile: Yes
Location: San Jose, California
Has thanked: 1 time
Been thanked: 6 times
Contact:

Interesting Case - 3D Drone Mapping

Post by vislaw »

I had the opportunity to work on an interesting forensic case in the Hawaiian Islands involving a diving mishap that occurred at the Molokini crater off the coast of Kihei, Maui. I have very close connections with the University of Hawaii Oceanography Department as well as NOAA, but I was surprised to find that there was no high resolution terrain data available for the land mass and no high resolution bathymetry. After some extremely deep library research I did discover a subsurface survey completed in 1904 by the USS Patterson on commission from the government. For the landmass I made a quick trip over last week and rented a boat at dawn so I could go out and acquire drone imagery to create an accurate 3D terrain to combine with the bathymetry. Here's the preliminary render of the drone data superimposed over a nautical map:

https://vimeo.com/forensicarts/review/1 ... 8a1a8bb5bf

Image

Image

Image
User avatar
LPaulCook
V.I.P Member
V.I.P Member
Posts: 485
Joined: Sat Jul 18, 2015 9:42 pm
8
Full Name: L Paul Cook
Company Details: Land surveyor doing LiDAR
Company Position Title: President
Country: United States
Linkedin Profile: Yes
Location: Santa Barbara CA
Has thanked: 47 times
Been thanked: 44 times
Contact:

Re: Interesting Case - 3D Drone Mapping

Post by LPaulCook »

Very nice animation!

I have gone snorkeling there with my grandson and my wife. It's an extremely popular place to dive which explains why you went so early.

What drone and software did you use?

Thanks for sharing this.
L. Paul Cook, PLS
www.LPC3D.com
User avatar
vislaw
V.I.P Member
V.I.P Member
Posts: 125
Joined: Thu Feb 17, 2011 1:42 pm
13
Full Name: Mark Johnson
Company Details: Visual Law Group
Company Position Title: Principal and Chief Creative Officer
Country: USA
Linkedin Profile: Yes
Location: San Jose, California
Has thanked: 1 time
Been thanked: 6 times
Contact:

Re: Interesting Case - 3D Drone Mapping

Post by vislaw »

LPaulCook wrote:Very nice animation!

I have gone snorkeling there with my grandson and my wife. It's an extremely popular place to dive which explains why you went so early.

What drone and software did you use?

Thanks for sharing this.
I flew a DJI Phantom 3. I did bring an Inspire 1 along but I decided I didn't want to risk hand-catching it with the water rather choppy. I used Pix4D, which I prefer greatly over the competing packages. Its really a great tool and we use it often in combination with our terrestrial scanner. Obviously, this particular case required drone-mapping. The software doesn't really require that good of a camera and you can get superb results with GoPros as long as you have sufficient overlapping images.
Post Reply

Return to “Forensics & CSI”